


To Lose Your Voice is to Be Broken

by GoldenMoon_42



Series: Izzy's IronStrange Bingo 2019 [9]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Blood and Injury, IronStrange, IronStrange Bingo 2019, M/M, Mute Tony Stark, Tony has a pet turtle, its name is The Supreme Turtle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-03-29 13:12:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19020631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenMoon_42/pseuds/GoldenMoon_42
Summary: IronStrange Bingo Square: CreatureA creature from another dimension invades Earth and takes Tony and attacks him when Stephen and the others try to get him back. The attack leaves Tony mute forever.





	To Lose Your Voice is to Be Broken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [turtle_abyss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/turtle_abyss/gifts).



> This is for my IronStrange Bingo Square CREATURE. 
> 
> I researched whether or not an injury to the throat is enough to destroy one's vocal cords, but I decided that yes it does for the sake of this fic. 
> 
> Sorry for any medical inaccuracies in this fic.
> 
> WARNING: GRAPHIC DETAILS OF BLOOD AND INJURY
> 
> Thanks to Adri and Anke for beta-ing

To lose your voice is to be broken

and if that's the case, consider me shattered

\- Zohaib Bangash

 

* * *

 

Stephen, who was sat on one of the chairs inside the Avengers Compound, watched Tony with a sad look in his eyes, as Tony struggled. He couldn’t bear the look in Tony’s eyes as he tried to talk to his small turtle, Suppie, and no sound came out. The look of defeat and realization and denial when words, sounds no longer came out of his mouth, hurt Stephen so much. Tony was always so vocal and suddenly not being able to hear that honey-laced voice left an empty feeling in Stephen’s chest. Stephen should have been faster, should have destroyed the beast before it had gotten its claws around Tony’s neck.

 

“You shouldn’t blame yourself,” came Natasha’s soft husky voice. Stephen felt her sit down on the chair next to him. 

 

“I can’t help it, I should have been faster, I should have stopped the Beast,” Stephen muttered, images from that moment forever seared into his brain, waving his hand at the window in front of him,  “Because if I did, Tony wouldn’t be outside for the first time in weeks, looking crushed because his voice is gone forever.” 

Stephen and Natasha looked out across the room, as they watched Tony through the window. Tony was outside sitting on the bench, sitting cross-legged in sweat pants and a loose henley shirt. Stephen watched Tony’s profile as he watched him make faces at the turtle in Tony’s hands. From there, Stephen’s eyes moved to the bandage that covered Tony’s neck.

 

“If someone’s to blame, it should be me,” said Natasha, anger evident in her voice, “I should have remembered that the Beast had superior senses.”

 

Stephen grabbed one of her hands holding it in his scarred hand, the two of them continued watching Tony as he took comfort in being outside of the Compound for the first time in weeks with his turtle.

 

“My friends, Wanda and I have been mulling over the Beast and Tony getting hurt and losing his voice,” came Thor’s voice, and Stephen looked to his left to see Thor and Wanda join the two in him in his little suffering, “we have come to the conclusion that the fault lies in the Beast. We had forgotten the obsession that the Beast had for our friend Tony.”

 

Stephen remembered the obsession that the Beast had for Tony and shuddered, terrified.

 

“ It would still be my fault ,” muttered Stephen, “I wasn’t paying attention to the walls of our dimension.”

 

“You were busy, and the effects of Thanos’ Snap is still affecting the universe,” reasoned Wanda who was sitting on the floor in front of Nat, trying to reassure Stephen, placing a hand on his knee, “All we can do now is help him find ways to communicate with us effectively, and give him the time to come to terms with losing his voice.”

 

“I suppose,” answered Stephen, as the group of four continued to watch after Tony, within the walls of the Compound. 

 

* * *

 

Tony was sitting on a bench cross-legged, outside of the Compound, enjoying the time he had outdoors. He bathed in the warmth and breeze, his lungs breathing in the first puffs of fresh air it had in weeks. Looking down at his knees, he had looked at the small creature in his hands. It had been weeks since he was able to be outside and relax with his pet turtle, Suppie. It had been weeks since the incident, but at the same time for Tony, it had felt recent. It had been exactly one month, four days, six hours, fifteen minutes and two seconds since he lost his ability to talk, to make a sound with his throat, his vocal cords. He could still see and feel the moment that it happened to him in his mind. He could still feel the blooding gushing from his slit throat and coating his hands, making them hot and sticky. He could still remember the raspy noises he had made trying to talk, trying to make a sound as he woke from the slumber he was in only to find out that he could no longer talk. The damage to his throat, to his vocal cords, was too extensive, too fragile even for Helen’s Cradle to fix.

 

Tony lost his ability to communicate with his voice. He lost his weapon against so many of his enemies. His voice was one of the greatest weapons he had in his armory, and now he had it no longer. He felt vulnerable, weak, and no longer himself. It was as though he lost a part of his identity for even though the suit was his main weapon, his voice had been his first. The very first weapon he learned to wield, to inflict the most damage but to also soothe the minds of the masses.

 

As Tony wallowed in his emotions, he watched as Suppie, a small Russian tortoise, munched on the lettuce in his hand. His little mouth crunching on the leaf brought a smile to Tony’s face. Being away from the others, with Suppie for company, was what Tony needed, and he was grateful that Bruce and Helen had let him have his alone time. He didn’t want to see the looks on the others’ face, the look of pity. He couldn’t bear it. He was already dealing with his emotions, he didn’t want to deal with their pity too.  As Tony watched Suppie munch on the lettuce, his mind drifted to that night, the night it all happened.

 

* * *

 

Tony didn’t know what to do. He was trapped in whatever room the beast had stuck him in. The room was filthy, the tables lying on the side, scratches, and cracks visible on the wall. He knew that any of the weapons he would have created would be greatly overpowered by the beast. The beast was far too strong for him to attack and escape, and even if he did escape, the beast would find him, with its strong sense of sight and smell. The door to the room suddenly opened surprising Tony, and in walked the Beast, its body crouched in on itself, the back of his hands scraping against the floor, creating a screeching sound of metal against concrete. The sound grated against Tony’s ear sending terrifying shivers up and down his spine.

 

The Beast took Tony, grabbing him from behind and dragged him to the door and out into the world. Tony didn’t fight knowing full well that he’d be overpowered. He didn’t know where he was going but Tony knew it was somewhere not good, he hoped that Stephen and the others would get to him in time. He had no access to Friday, so he had no way of alerting the others to his location, maybe next time Tony could place a GPS somewhere on himself. The Beast kept walking kept dragging Tony until they were in an open field and it dropped him in the middle. The field, from what Tony could tell was open and had very few things to hide behind, the trees tall climbing up to night sky as though they wanted to greet the full moon. As Tony looked around, he realized that the trees had somehow created an almost complete circle around the open field.

 

From the time that the Beast came into this universe, which Tony realized that the theory of the multiverse was proven true, Tony could somehow sense its intelligence, as though before becoming this monstrous thing it was human. From the way, it thought as it haunted the civilians as though playing with its toy to becoming obsessed with him in a way that only humans could. Tony watched as the Beast circled around him, once in a while walking close to him sniffing or bringing a clawed hand around his neck close to his carotid artery. The fear that crept up his spine as the Beast got near his neck paralyzed him, the fear of bleeding out kept him still, his breath coming in small gasps, as he tried to keep his neck still. Tony let out the breath he tried to hold when the beast finally moved away from, the fear ebbing a bit. He watched the Beast continue to stalk around him when it froze, its ears twitching from the sound only it could hear. Tony strained his ears trying to hear what the Beast could. It began to sniff the air and all of a sudden, a smile began to creep up on its face, a smile so sinister and psychotic that the fear Tony felt began to worsen. The smile only brought more support to the idea that the Beast had been human once.

 

The Beast continued to pace again, pausing every now and then to listen and sniff its surrounding waiting for some kind of company. Tony hoped with all he had that it was Stephen and the others. Finally, the Beast stopped pacing, pausing to the right of him, Tony guessed that was where they were going to be coming from. Relief ran through Tony’s body, however, fear replaced that feeling as he saw the Beast trample towards him. The Beast stood close to him and finally, someone, no wait, multiple someones broke into the clearing. Relief ran through Tony’s spine again when he recognized the orange and green sparks of Stephen’s and Wong’s magic, the red of Natasha’s hair, the glint of Thor’s Stormbreaker, and the deep hazy red of Wanda’s charms as the moonlight shone down on their faces. As they neared the middle of the open clearing in caution, Tony heard Natasha speak up,

“Tony, you okay?” asked Natasha, her right hand going to the gun near her hip.

 

“As okay as you can get with the Beast being near,” chuckled Tony nervously his voice going up in pitch, the fear getting to him as the Beast once again came closer to him.

“We’ll get you back safely Tony,” Nat spoke softly, but from the many years of friendship between them, Tony could hear the fear in her voice. Tony nodded his head. The Beast growled at Nat’s proclamation having understood what she had said.

 

“Guys, this Beast definitely used to be human,” informed Tony, “so it's going to be smart, like really smart, so please be careful.” 

 

Tony saw their heads nod in acknowledgment. Nat made hand gestures signaling to the others what they were to do. He watched as they slowly but surely walked towards them, with Wong and Nat moving back from the group. He hoped that their plan would work. The Beast had moved away from Tony, though only a few feet, took an aggressive stance getting ready for the attack that was to come. Tony saw Stephen, Thor, and Wanda converge on the Beast using their powers as the Beast ran towards them, and he hoped that their attacks would end the Beast. However that was not the case, the Beast was hit by the energy attack, only for it to stagger a bit and somehow absorb the attack. A look of shock was evident on all three faces, as their attacks were absorbed by the Beast. Together Thor, Stephen, Wanda continued to attack the Beast, this time physically now that they knew that the Beast absorbed their attacks. Stephen and Wanda summoning magic weapons as Thor used Stormbreaker. They attacked nonstop until one of the attacks found its way to the Beast’s torso.

 

As Tony watched the fight in front of him, he could feel and see the light of the sparks that came from the portals that Tony now knew came from Wong. As the portal opened from behind him, the Beast, sensing what was going to happen, somehow released the wave of energy that he absorbed from the energy attacks, pushing back Wanda, Thor, and Stephen causing them to hit the ground. The Beast then turned and ran to Tony, the energy attack giving it more energy to run faster to him. The Beast ran until it was in front of Tony and grabbed him by the neck, the tips of its claws grasping but not breaking the skin of his neck. Tony’s fear came back, his heart beating fast, knowing that one wrong move from him and he’d be bleeding. He heard Nat stop behind him as she took in the sight before her, the small gasp she had let out terrifying him even more.

 

The Beast looked Tony right in the eye and to everyone’s surprise, spoke, “Mine, mine, mine,” the voice deep and raspy, but somehow familiar to Tony.

 

“Mine, you’re mine and only mine,” the Beast continued, “Mine only. Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.”

 

Tony, looking at the Beast closely, recognized its eyes, he knew those eyes very intimately. He woke up to those eyes every morning. He gazed into those eyes every day as he cuddled the man who carried those eyes. 

 

“Let him go please,” came Stephen’s voice, the timbre deep and shaky, fear for him evident.

 

Tony looked towards his Stephen and back to the Beast. The Beast having frozen when Stephen spoke. 

 

“No!” growled the Beast, his grip on Tony tightening, “He’s mine. Only mine! No one can have him! If I can’t have him, then no one can!!”

 

With that, the Beast deepened its grip on Tony’s neck, and Tony could feel the claws pierce his skin, a small pinprick of pain flaring where claw met skin. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Wanda and Thor on his right, with Stormbreaker enveloped in Wanda’s hazy red charms, speeding towards the Beast as Tony tried to yell for them to not do it. The Beast’s claws, Tony felt, moved across his Adam's apple as it was hit by Stormbreaker, and then the pain was all Tony knew. The pain was sharp but somehow muted as though he was underwater, he felt his arms move to his neck, shock making time seem slow.

 

Tony was somehow still standing, his hands on his neck as blood streamed from the wound, covering his hands in warm red. His mouth was still open from his attempts to shout for the others to stop. The shock that Tony was feeling coursing through his body, and he struggled for a breath, he guessed that the Beast was able to pierce his larynx, which now that he thought about it, was bad. He could see black spots filtering into his vision and he knew that he was close to blacking out. Tony, with his hands still around his neck, slowly felt his knees hitting the ground first, and from behind him, he could hear and feel Nat catch him, one of her hands going to his neck as she helped him down. Once he was somehow on the ground Tony let the black take him.

 

* * *

  

Stephen flew as he could towards Tony and Natasha, worry and panic coursing through his body. He ignored Thor and Wanda as they flew to where the Beast lay jerking, as it succumbed to its death. He urged Cloakie to move faster until finally, he was next to Natasha. 

 

“Stephen we need to get him to the med bay quickly,” spoke the Black Widow, as Stephen watched her hands try to staunch the flow of blood from Tony’s neck wound.  There was so much of that vital liquid pouring from Tony's wounds, enough that he could barely see the color of the Widow's hands .

 

“He’s losing blood, and a lot of it, but it doesn’t look like the Beast hit his carotid artery, from what I can tell,” the Widow continued, her voice clinical as she spouted out what she knew, “I’ve alerted Bruce and the others back at the Compound.” 

 

All Stephen could see was Tony’s blood getting all over her suit and the ground below them, a screeched HURRY, knocking him out of his mind. Taking a deep breath, Stephen visualized in his head an image of the Avengers Med Bay. With the image in mind, he raised his hands and moved them in a circular motion, bringing the portal into existence. Looking up at Thor and Wanda, Stephen spoke, his voice somehow calm, “Make sure that beast is gone, Wong will bring you back.”

 

“Aye, we will,” rumbled Thor, disturbed look on his face as he looked from the beast to Stephen’s face, his voice going silent and his grip on Stormbreaker strengthening.

 

“Make sure Stark is okay and we’ll handle this,” added Wanda and from what Stephen could see of her face, he saw that a disturbed look was also evident on her face.

 

“Strange hurry!” screamed the Widow, full-blown panic breaking through her voice. Stephen saw her attempt to lift Tony in her arms whilst trying to staunch the bleeding but was unsuccessful. He nudged at Cloakie, and off it flew to Natasha’s side, changing shape and setting itself on Tony’s neck wound. Stephen could see Bruce from the other side of the portal, ordering people, as he helped prepare for Tony. 

 

“Move it now, and call Cho right now!” barked the usually calm quiet man, worry for his Science Bro evident in his voice. People were hurrying around them as Natasha and Cloakie brought Tony to one of the medic beds. 

 

With the portal closed and Tony safe in the hands of Bruce and the other people in the med bay, all Stephen could do now was wait and worry. There were days when he hated that tremors that his hands made and this was one of them. He could have helped with Tony’s injury, joined in helping heal Tony. Stephen stepped back, his back leaning against the wall, worry for Tony was all his mind could do.

 

It was hours later when Bruce and Helen walked out of the med bay, towards the little group that gathered nearby on the couches. Some of the people in the small group included the group of five that went after the Beast. Stephen stood up from the couch and noticed the look on their faces. The grim looks on their faces sent a feeling of terror Stephen, it was a look that he used when he spoke with his patients’ family. Stephen knew then, that the news was not a good one. Bruce had his glasses in his hands, playing with it, as though that action would allow him to forget what happened to Tony. Stephen watched as both Helen and Bruce looked at each other and back to Stephen and the others. Taking a deep breath, Bruce spoke, “Tony is stable now.”

 

At the news that Tony was stable, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, clapping each other on the back, or hugging each other. Stephen felt Pepper’s hand touch his shoulder, and lifted a trembling hand to his shoulder, as though Pepper’s hand had anchored him to reality. Stephen looked back to Bruce and Helen waiting for them to continue their report.

“He lost a lot of blood, but we managed to give him enough via transfusion,” continued Helen, her voice soft, her hands held tightly to the StarkPad in her hands.

 

“The Beast did a lot of damage to Tony’s throat,” Bruce said taking over the explanation, as he continued to whip his glasses with his button-up shirt, “However, we were able to confirm that he missed the carotid artery.” 

 

“Which is a blessing...” said Helen, her voice drifting off at the end.

 

“Helen please tell me the truth, I can handle it,” asked Stephen, worry making his voice tremble as the others around him waited for the outcome of the extent of Tony’s injury.

 

Helen looked to Bruce again, speaking with their eyes, and taking a deep breath, explained the process “The damage to Tony’s vocal cords was extensive; we did try to fix them. The whole thing was a very difficult, very fragile process, and even with the Cradle, we weren’t able to regrow his larynx, his vocal cords, back.”

 

At the news, Stephen closed his eyes tightly. It was all his fault. It was all his fault that Tony lost the use of his vocal cords, the ability to talk. Stephen was so lost in his thoughts that he only caught the tail end of Bruce’s explanation, “...it’ll take a few hours until Tony wakes up, but you can go and sit by his bed.”

 

Stephen nodded, and together with Pepper walked to Tony’s bedside on they walked into the med bay. Looking at Tony, Stephen realized how small he looked on the bed. He also noticed the bandage around Tony’s neck, and Stephen breathed in, seeing the bandage made the situation, the reality set in. There were machines around the bed, the tube and wires pumping air and keeping track of Tony’s vitals, as Tony slept, oblivious to all the beeping and worrying that surrounded the air. When Stephen reached the bed, he reached for Tony’s hand cradling it in his shaky hands and brought it close to his face, his lips grazing softly against the back of Tony’s hand. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Pepper walk to the other side of Tony’s bed, taking a seat on the chair next to it, grabbing Tony’s other hand. Before sitting on the chair by the bed, Stephen leaned down a bit, until his face was close to Tony’s face, and slowly Stephen brought his face closer until their foreheads were touching. Now the waiting game had begun.  

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!!! Kudos and Comments give me life!!!!
> 
> Thinking of turning this into a series to explain more, so look out for that.
> 
> Find me on tumblr [here](https://music-is-the-voice-of-the-soul.tumblr.com) .


End file.
